Last day in paradise

5/24

Is it really our last day in Italy? Michael has a serious case of depression but I'm trying to just think about what lies ahead. We still have about two weeks of vacation left before we return to San Diego.
We couldn't get in the Borghese Gallery when we were here earlier so we made a reservation for today. It had some beautiful art and I do think I appreciated it more after our month in art classes ie a million museums. What I don't understand is why this art is so important that you need a reservation and you can only be there two hours and of that you can only look at the cool stuff (paintings) for 30 minutes. Due to the time constraints we gave in and paid for the audio guide. The museum was a private home so it's set on a lovely park which we toured on our way out. From there we picked up some quick items to take home with us and did a bag swap at the hotel because we had to check everything we owned at the museum so we didn't bring much.
The rest of the day we just enjoyed the city. We ate lunch late so we only ended up getting gelato once! Blasphemy I know! We went to the Spanish steps, took some pictures and people watched for a while, strolled along the streets, stopped at a few small churches along the way ending in Piazza Navona which has a four rivers fountain. Going to these places makes it even more depressing that we lost the camera because we had some great pictures from our first time. Took the bus back to the hotel so could pack which I'm happy to say went much easier then we thought.
Our home lives aren't nearly this exciting but we still have some vacationing to do while we're on the east coast so we'll continue to write. We'll be in NY a little over a week and the Yankees aren't playing at home once but it's Fleet Week!

Rome Part II

5/23/12:

Our trip is quickly coming to an end and I think clinical depression is setting in. It's not that I don't want to come home ... Well actually thats exactly what it is. I miss family and friends and some foods and of course my own language and culture. But we've grown accustomed to another way of life. Public transportation that just works, a population who doesn't feel the need to keep up with the Jones and the lack of rude, fat, annoying Americans.

Anyway, up this AM in our swanky hotel in Orvieto (Palazzo Piccolomini) then grabbed a bus from the top of the mountain down to the train station. Hard to describe Orvieto without a picture so I won't really try. Check out this site (http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/italy/01orvieto.htm) and just picture a sweet medieval town, towers and all, perched up on a giant rocky plateau (think AYERS ROCK). At the train station we met a couple who had been pickpocketed in Rome at the termini train station. Holy awful batman!

Arrived Rome about 11 AM, checked in to our hotel (Piemonte Hotel) and then decide to grab some souvenirs. Made our way to the Vatican where we saw about a million people milling about and standing in lines. The line to get in to the basilica must have been 3 hours long. I guess the tourist season is rolling full steam ahead! We found the post office, bought a couple things, perused 'religious souvenir row' which was lined with about 100 shops selling anything and everything plastered with images of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict (16th???). Found a store selling a yummy candy called bacio (one of my favorite gelato favors!) so we snagged a couple for a quick treat :)

A little after 3 we went to the Capuchin Crypts (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capuchin_Crypt). This place was super cool but super creepy as well. Apparently some monks had to move to a smaller place and wanted to bring all their pals with them. So they dug everyone up (must be hundreds of people) and then used all the bones to decorate the underground crypt. The bones are arranged in cool patterns like flowers and swirls and crosses. A couple hour glasses and some other unusual designs as well. I think visiting on Oct 31st would be a great Halloween treat!

Went over to the Trastevere neighborhood and wandered around a bit. We had an audio walking tour from Rick Steves that helped guide us around. The neighborhood was really nice and heaps of charm. Looked in a couple ancient churches and then found a grand place to eat. We bought a bottle of wine a few day ago and decided we should drink it tonight in our room which meant no wine at dinner. Carolyn had some pesto gnocchi and I had a Gorgonzola penne dish. Extra yummy! We met an older Dutch couple who if you can believe it, had just biked to Rome all the way from holland! Took them 2 weeks. Chatted with them and then made our way home.

At the train stop we saw 2 guys who looked a bit lost. We offered some help and found out one of them was trying I get to the airport. After explaining all the stops he would need the guy asked us how long we'd been in rome. When we said 2 days he replied: 'and you already know how to navigate the metro system!' we explained that we already spent a week here so that's our secret sauce. Felt good to help another traveller in need. Incidentally the guy was from Afghanistan but lives in Germany. Crazy world.

Our previous plan was discarded when we decided gelato was more important than wine. So we had our second serving, then walked over to the Trevi Fountain. Took some pics, admired the fountain and then headed home. We took a bus and almost had front row seats to a ghetto UFC match. An older Italian couple sitting in the last row woke up abruptly and realized they'd lost something. I don't know for sure cause they didn't speak English but their mannerisms told the tale. Anyway the guy must have accidentally (I assume) pulled the hair of the lady in front of him. The husband of this lady begins to puff his chest out and tells us he's going to 'smack 'im!' They're American of course. So this guy stands up and you can just feel the tension building. The old guy has no clue what's going on (he's more concerned with whatever it is he lost). The situation doesn't look good and I'm a heartbeat away from moving Carolyn out of the area. The guys wife tries to get off the bus but the husband says no. He states his intent on smacking the older guy. Luckily the situation doesn't escalate but when the bus gets to the last stop he gets in the old dudes face and says (in Anglo-ized italian): 'Please suck my _________' feel free to insert whatever you like in the blank. I heard him say it but after we all got off the bus he runs up to his wife (who smartly ran away from the scene) and screams what he just told the older guy. So as if it weren't bad enough the first time he said it on the bus, he had to let everyone else know as well. What a turd. Seriously there's just no reason to let anger get the best of you. He's the reason Americans have a bad rap.

Anyway, tomorrow we're hitting up the Borghese Gallery (http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm) for some amazing art!!!! Can't believe it's already our last day.

Pics:
1) Trastevere Piazza.
2) Trevi Fountain at night.
3) Mrs Blue in the Pantheon.
4) St Peters Basilica.
5) Carolyn in St Peters Square.
6) Pantheon at night.
7) St Cecelia statue inside the church of St Cecelia.
8) View of Orvieto from below. The large hill / mountain in back is the town.
9) Us at the Trevi Fountain.

For love of food

5/24/12:

Just want to throw this tidbit out to all our American peeps:

We've been in Italy for a month now, eating some of the best food on the planet. We've been to 16 different cities, countless eateries and supermarkets. Not once. Let me emphasize that again ... Not. One. Time. In Italy we have yet to see the 2nd most disgusting thing on the planet. Onions. The best food on the planet = no onions.

Just something to think about from me to you.

So this is what getting up for work feels like

0630 alarm goes off
0716 board bus
0745 arrive train station
0807 board train
0921 arrive Chiusa
1059 depart for Orvieto
1124 arrive Orvieto
1135 take funicular to town
1140 take bus to city center
1200 arrive hotel!

Sometime during the morning trip we realize that this is what getting up for work feels like only we have to get up earlier, works starts at 0715. For me it was worth the early morning. Orvieto is a quaint hill town with a gorgeous few. We toured their stunning Cathedral which held a cloth with blood stains that they claim came from a loaf of bread used for communion (RELIC!!!). The original case for the cloth looked like something from a fairy tale. One of the chapels had brilliant frescoes of the Apocalypse and our guide book had a play by play of it which made it much more enjoyable. We also visited a well. Not just any well, St. Patrick's Well which is a 16th century double helix pattern, 175 foot deep well. It was built in fear that the town would be besieged and had no water source. The double stairs work great for tourists but it was built that way so that there was plenty of room for the donkeys to go up and down. I wish some of the towers we've climbed had the same thing because there were times climbing up a tower in Florence that we were holding on for dear life as people came down.
It's a bit of a shock to us but we are leaving on Friday. I feel like it really crept up and I only realized how close it was when I got an email from a friend about plans we made for Saturday. Surely she can't mean this Saturday? Michaels been without a haircut since Vietnam and said he would not be attending any functions looking like a shaggy Sasquatch. Meanwhile I'm thinking that we'll barely have time to do laundry and we're just about out of clean clothes. Somehow I don't think our friends will care but luckily this is a small town so we found a barber and for 9€ Michael got an Italian haircut from a man who didn't speak a lick of English.

Pics:
- one of the items on Michael finer things list is living/staying somewhere with a spiral staircase. We put a bid on a condo with one once but lost to someone paying cash! Anyway this hotel had suites with spiral staircases in them, I wish I had know because I would have booked it! This is one that goes to the staffs room.
- a first for the Blues, we order a whole bottle of wine, we're so grown up!
- On the way down St. Patrick's well
- Look Marisa no chocolate! I think it's because I'm sick but I was craving strawberry so for the first time since arriving in Italy I had a gelato that wasn't a chocolate flavor
- From one of the many viewpoints, so many shades of green

Birds do not like me

5/21/12:

I'll just pick up where Carolyn left off last night:

After racing for the train (and making it), we relaxed on said train for about 1.25 hours. Now we'd done a little Pre planning and knew we would have to take the #10 bus from the train station to our hotel. Google maps told us it would leave at 10'ish. Walking out of the train we were greeted by some serious rain. And some serious cold. I was honestly upset in SE Asia that we were going to miss cold weather but Italy seems to have fixed that gripe. So we see a bus stop outside the station but the next (and of course last) stop is at like 9:45. Through hand signals and grunts we figure out that that particular bus isn't going the right way. So we consult our treasure map and guidebook and discover we have to cross the field of swirly twirly gum drops, through the 7 hills of candy corn and then go through the Lincoln tunnel. Seriously we had to cross a concrete field in the pouring rain, find a secret door with a secret elevator in order to get to the correct bus stop. We successfully completed that task and made it into the right bus. Our next challenge was figuring out where to get off. I had a map saved on my phone but it super dark out and raining. Luckily we get off at the right place an then walk the 400 meters to our hotel.

Checked in and went to sleep for about 10 hours. We needed it fo sho!

Since we saw most of the highlights in Siena yesterday, today was more of a wander around and get some souvenirs day. We did head over to San Domenico Church and see St Catherine's head and FINGER!!!!! Creepy but really cool. Her mummified finger was literally 4 inches from our faces!

We stopped in a cafe for a coffee from a guy with a certificate saying he was a certified amazing espresso maker. It was good but not the best. Had some of the best pizza we've had, got a couple shirts and a Christmas ornament.

Ended the day with a drink at a place called Bar Key Largo. They have an awesome balcony overlooking the campo (huge piazza in Siena). Carolyn had some serious hot chocolate and I had 2 glasses of wine. During my first glass I got a little note from a bird saying they don't like me. Translation: I got crapped on!!!! Luckily it was only my pants. I washed them off and then tried to enjoy my wine. 10 minutes later another feathered jerk crapped in my wine. Yukky. I'm not about to let a bird scare me off so I went and got another glass ... We moved to another seat and I kept my hand on top of my glass :).

Oh, earlier we stopped at the train station and discovered that trains don't go to Orvieto very regularly. So we had to buy a ticket departing at 0804. Which means catching a 0715 bus. Which means waking up at 0630. Which means we're already grumpy.

Anyway, had dinner at a sweet little place next to our hotel and if you can believe the horror, did not have our second gelato! Instead we had profiteroles!!!!!!! Friggin yum!

We did some recon action on the bus situation and eventually decided on a 0716 bus. Also grabbed a couple provisions for our ridiculously early trip tomorrow. Croissants and nutella!!!

So we leave Siena tomorrow for Orvieto. Siena was really nice but not a whole lot going on. The duomo was one of the best we've seen, the campo was so pretty and a great place to hang out ... And as weird as this sounds, seeing the relics of St Caterine was the highlight for me. We've done our best to see a relic in every town. So far we've only failed in a couple cities.

Pics:
1) storm clouds brewing over Siena.
2) Us on the balcony at bar key largo.
3) Carolyn in a mini door.
4) Storm clouds over the Mangia Tower and the Duomo.
5) San Domenico.
6) Storm clouds over the Mangia Tower.
7) typical street in Siena.
8) Me in the Campo.
9) Hot Chocolate and wine (after the bird crap incident) overlooking the campo.

Close calls

Today wasn't one of our finer planning days. We booked a tour thinking when we got back to Florence we could take a train directly to Siena, our next location. The trip we booked was making a stop in Siena but we wanted the tour for the wine tasting which was after Siena. We had the good sense to buy our train tickets ahead and bring our bags with us on the tour. We were supposed to get back around 1930ish and our train was at 2010. Normally if we miss a train it's no big deal, just take the next one but we realized our hotel only allowed check in until 2030, we contacted them and they said check in would be until 2330. That's fine IF we make the 2010 train. We told the tour guide about our train and he tried to wrap things up but we were already behind due to some late people earlier in the trip. At 1940 while sitting in traffic I start trying to figure out our contingency plan, the next train gets in at 2315, maybe we could have the tour guide call the hotel and then take a cab from the train to the hotel, Michael had said there was a bus to Siena but we didn't look up the schedule, what are the chances we can find the ticket booth and get on a bus that gets us there before 2300? We pulled into the train station, run to the train and pull the closing doors open as we hopped on, we made it!!! Thank goodness because it's been a long day.
Michael kept me up ALL night over three so called mosquitos. He claims he was getting bit all night although he can not produce any bites. After a very loud bug repellant application, (seriously only my husband could make a racket applying a lotion!) at 4am I finally got some zzzs before the alarm went off at 7. Up, shower, pack, breakfast, meet bus. We were exhausted. Michael said he felt like it was hell week at military training. My cold is moving around and it's currently in a place I don't like, my throat. It feels like I've swallowed razor blades.
To add to our glorious moods, it was cold and rainy today. First stop was San Gimignano where we promptly got hot drinks, took in the rolling green hills and then found the "The Gelato World Champion". It was a little early but how could we pass up such an opportunity.
Loaded the bus, next stop Siena. Had lunch, got a tour of city and visited The Cathedral which was stunning. They had a room with frescos from the 1400's unrestored and it looked like they were painted yesterday. Apparently the room gets enough light that candles weren't needed so it didn't get wax and soot residue. Then I found a million things to buy at the souvenir shops, our favorite toddler happens to be named Siena. Luckily I have tomorrow to really look. From there it was a quick stop at a Medieval Castle and then off to our favorite part, Chianti wine tasting.
This place was awesome. They make wine, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a few smaller things. It started as a hobby and finally this guy took a leap and started his own farm. We tried a dessert wine, Chianti classico and what he called a friends wine. It's one that takes time to drink and should be done leisurely in good company. Then we got to taste some absolutely amazing EVOO, truffle olive oil and the grande finale was vanilla ice cream with 30 year old balsamic vinegar. Doesn't sound like it goes together but it was wonderful.
We generally despise large tour groups with their umbrella holding guides, taking up entire doorways, side walks, restaurants but today we were one of them. Up until the wine tour we didn't think the tour was worth the money. We are good enough at navigating a city and seeing sights that we didn't need someone leading the way, plus we like going our own pace.

Pics:
- We didn't see any Tuscan sun but it's still beautiful
- Serious artwork that's 600 years old, makes you wonder why we are soon wrong these day
- ice cream and balsamic vinegar yes please
- trying to stay dry at the vineyard

Earthquakes and other tidbits

5/21/12:

Just saw some news that there was a bombing in Brindisi (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18128170) and a serious earthquake near Bologna (http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/world/europe/italy-earthquake/index.html).

Nothing to worry about, we're just fine. I'm pretty sure we felt the earthquake as we were in Florence which is only an hour'ish south of where it hit.